cannabisnews.com: Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It! Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke It! Posted by CN Staff on January 29, 2004 at 12:35:11 PT By Elizabeth Meyer Source: Daily Barometer Last week, rock legend Art Garfunkel was arrested. He didn't hit anyone; he wasn't carrying a gun. But when a police officer pulled his limo over for speeding in upstate New York, that officer found a small amount of marijuana in Garfunkel's shirt pocket.I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, that such a thing could happen. After all, I grew up listening to my parents' Simon and Garfunkel classics like "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters." How could a man that sang songs like "Feelin' Groovy" ever do anything like smoke weed?But while I was in line to return my Simon and Garfunkel CDs out of protest, I got to thinking. Why is our society so obsessed with marijuana use? Is it really that bad for you? And why does Attorney General Ashcroft care what you do in your own home?When I realized that I didn't have any good answers, I got out of line and headed home to find them. But after some reading, I just had more questions.Why does the government have the right to tell adults not to use something, even when we're not hurting anyone else?Studies are inconclusive about whether pot even really hurts the user. According to a New Scientist article published in 2002, you would have to smoke at least five joints a day to equal the lung damage done by a pack of cigarettes, and alcohol destroys your liver. Yet you can buy both of these in the grocery store.Chemically, coffee is more addictive than weed, according the New Scientist magazine. And while pot may be mentally addictive, so is shopping and gambling.Of course, you could answer that question by just saying that marijuana is a "gateway drug." That is, that using it will cause you to do harder drugs, like cocaine and heroin, which are bad for you.But over 76 million Americans have tried marijuana. Most of them never became regular users, and even fewer ever tried anything harder.It's true most people that use cocaine used pot at one time. But it's also true that they all breathed air -- that doesn't mean that everyone that breathes air will become a coke head.But even if pot were bad for you, why do you need the government to tell you not to do it? As long as it doesn't hurt others, why can't a reasonable adult decide whether or not the risk is worth it?And why is the punishment for marijuana related crimes so extreme?According to former President Jimmy Carter, "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use."Over 700,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges last year. In the last decade, almost 5 million Americans were arrested for marijuana.When convicted, these offenders are denied financial student aid, welfare, food stamps and are often removed from public housing.Other offenses don't carry these penalties. If you kill someone, you can get a Pell Grant, but if you're caught with a joint, you can't.But surely, I told myself, there's nothing in it for the government, right? There's just no reason for them to legalize pot.No reason, except, perhaps, the $1.2 billion dollars that taxpayers pay a year for 60,000 individuals currently in prison.Or the $7.5 billion, that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, we spend arresting and prosecuting stoners.Not only would legalization help save money, it would make money for the states.According to NORML, a pro-legalization website, marijuana is the fourth largest cash crop in the country. If states could tap into that market, and tax it, Measure 30 would be a thing of the past.So we must be doing it for the children. Except the children currently get their pot from dealers trying to push harder drugs. They can get marijuana laced with chemicals because there is no regulation.Besides, society already recognizes that there are some things that adults can do that children can't, like drinking, skydiving and renting a car. That distinction can be made with marijuana too.Maybe what Garfunkel did wasn't that bad after all. And while I won't advocate breaking the law, maybe its time to recognize that there's nothing wrong with changing the law. Maybe its time we all started "Feelin' Groovy."Elizabeth Meyer is a columnist for The Daily Barometer. The opinions expressed in her columns, which appear every Thursday, do not necessarily represent those of The Barometer staff. Source: Daily Barometer (OR Edu)Author: Elizabeth MeyerPublished: January 29, 2004Copyright: 2004, The Daily BarometerWebsite: http://barometer.orst.edu/Contact: baro.news studentmedia.orst.eduRelated Article & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Art Garfunkelhttp://www.artgarfunkel.com/Simon & Garfunkelhttp://www.simonandgarfunkel.com/Art Garfunkel To Fight Marijuana Chargehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18244.shtmlCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by Critto on January 30, 2004 at 09:22:37 PT I hope that now he joins our fight I mean: our fight against the prohibition. Anybody knows his e-mail ?? Cheerz, Critto LIBERTARYZM=LIBERTARIANISM (Polish, English) [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by yippierevolutionary on January 30, 2004 at 07:31:24 PT I disagree with the taxation assertion People always say "if we legalize it, we can tax it and the states can make all the money the drug dealers currently make"You have to understand that the money in cannabis is in the prohibition of it and enforcing that prohibition. When CP ends cannabis will be free like table salt is free. The market of taxable cannabis will be very small since almost everyone will either grow their own or know someone who does. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by SystemGoneDown on January 30, 2004 at 06:16:16 PT Im a marijuana addict... Like she said, it's mentally addictive, not physically. So anyone who is in rehab for marijuana is in there for no reason. It's all just for profit to keep you in there. I can't change my love and appreciation for Mary Jane, does this make me 'mentally addicted' to marijuana? I don't care, call it what you want but it's my freedom. If there's no physical dependency, let it go. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by rchandar on January 29, 2004 at 19:59:11 PT: garfunkel and then some... now wait a MINUTE! If they had any brain, the government could make a FORTUNE on pot! We're talking at least $50 billion, maybe more than that. But they aren't thinking, that's all...PS I'm not surprised at all. Garfunkel extolled concertgoers to smoke grass, it's no surprise to me.--rchandar [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by CorvallisEric on January 29, 2004 at 16:34:14 PT Nice This is remarkably well written for a college newspaper and helps make me happy living in this quiet, boring little city with its generally tranquil state forestry, agriculture, and engineering school (Oregon State Univ. in Corvallis).If states could tap into that market, and tax it, Measure 30 would be a thing of the past.Measure 30 is a tax-increase referendum which I would gladly vote for (against my personal economic interest) except for the fact that it will help feed the drug-war cancer. I think about the armored-personnel carriers in Eugene and the really stupid raids in neighboring Linn County all of which accomplished nothing even by *their* standards. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by u2desire on January 29, 2004 at 15:14:45 PT Some Integrity Finally a journalist with some integrity! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 29, 2004 at 14:51:07 PT A Comment This young person has done a good job with this article. She is acting upset by Art Garfunkel's getting caught with marijuana but shows the stupidity of it all. I liked this article. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment